The Needle Drop's Top 15 EPs of 2018



Source

1.
by 
EP • Sep 14 / 2018
IDM
Popular Highly Rated
2.
by 
EP • Aug 08 / 2018
Wonky UK Bass
Popular

Steel Mogu and Clear Tamei are Iglooghost’s back-to-back follow ups to his acclaimed full-length debut Neō Wax Bloom. As ever, the releases are bundled with multimedia storyline material that feed into Iglooghost’s ever-expanding narrative - giving longtime fans their first glimpse into the primordial era of the Mamu dimension. Although paired in format, the dual EPs draw from different corners of Igloo’s influences. Steel Mogu is a hyperspeed collage of synthetic, trance-influenced synths contorting around violent, mutating 808s - whilst Clear Tamei channels lavish string quartets and melancholic, fictional classical instruments. The double features are set in Mamu, 3000 years prior to the events of ‘Neō Wax Bloom.’ We are introduced to a young, see-through, god in-training named Tamei. Although a gifted, he and his little cohorts resent their fate of becoming Grid Göds - and find themselves wound up in a hyperspeed, cross-temporal battle with a fleet of mysterious, round beings.

3.
by 
EP • Oct 26 / 2018
Indie Rock Indie Folk Singer-Songwriter
Popular Highly Rated
4.
by 
EP • May 25 / 2018
Art Pop Progressive Pop
Popular
5.
by 
EP • Jul 06 / 2018
Synthpop Art Pop
Popular
6.
EP • Nov 26 / 2018
Conscious Hip Hop East Coast Hip Hop
Popular
7.
EP • May 18 / 2018
Progressive Electronic
Noteable
8.
by 
EP • May 25 / 2018
Deconstructed Club Industrial Hip Hop UK Hip Hop UK Bass
Popular
9.
EP • Aug 10 / 2018
Art Pop
Popular
10.
EP • Jun 15 / 2018
Popular Highly Rated
11.
by 
Album • Jul 22 / 2014
Twee Pop Indie Pop Jangle Pop
Popular

Alvvays are two women, three men, a crate of cassettes and a love of jingle-jangle. Molly Rankin and Kerri MacLellan grew up as next-door neighbours in Cape Breton, lifting fiddles and folk-songs. Heartbreaks of different shades soon entered their lives, as did the music of Teenage Fanclub and Belle & Sebastian. Similar noisy melancholy drifted over to Prince Edward Island, finding Alec O'Hanley, Brian Murphy and Philip MacIsaac. Convening in Toronto, the group have been making music since dusk or maybe dawn, when stars were appearing or fading off. As a result, their debut self-titled album is both sun-splashed and twilit -- nine songs concealing drunkenness, defeat and death in tungsten-tinted pop that glitters like sea glass. With needlepoint melody and verse, Rankin and O'Hanley's songs were recorded at Chad VanGaalen's Yoko Eno studio and mixed by Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck) and John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile). The resultant album is loud and clear and sure. Flood your ears.

12.
EP • Feb 20 / 2018
Noise Pop Indie Pop
Popular
13.
EP • Oct 19 / 2018
Abstract Hip Hop Cloud Rap Conscious Hip Hop West Coast Hip Hop
Popular

Nobody blends self-awareness and self-deprecation quite like Open Mike Eagle, so it should come as no surprise as to what, exactly, happens when the LA-via-Chicago rapper tries to relax: His mind goes a mile a minute. Hence, the first release on Mike’s own Auto Reverse label is dense and hyper-contemplative, balancing anxiety and world-weariness with dry humor. (“Who you gonna call? Probably not you,” he deadpans to the specter of an ex on “Single Ghosts.”) On “Relatable (peak OME),” he wryly unpacks his status as the approachable rapper next door—a meta-commentary that pits outside expectations against his own self-image.

Open Mike Eagle's first release on his new Auto Reverse label

14.
EP • Feb 09 / 2018
Neo-Soul
Popular
15.
by 
EP • Nov 08 / 2018
Death Metal
Noteable

****PRE-ORDER PERIOD HAS FINISHED AND ORDER HAS BEEN PLACED. THANK YOU**** "The azure of the heavens is perfect, beautiful..." Recorded, mixed and mastered September 2018 by MK. TOMB MOLD is: DV/PP: Astral Projection MK: Nebula Observation SM: Void Expansion

16.
EP • Jun 01 / 2018
East Coast Hip Hop Boom Bap
Popular Highly Rated
17.
by 
EP • Aug 08 / 2018
Wonky UK Bass Hybrid Trap
Popular

Steel Mogu and Clear Tamei are Iglooghost’s back-to-back follow ups to his acclaimed full-length debut Neō Wax Bloom. As ever, the releases are bundled with multimedia storyline material that feed into Iglooghost’s ever-expanding narrative - giving longtime fans their first glimpse into the primordial era of the Mamu dimension. Although paired in format, the dual EPs draw from different corners of Igloo’s influences. Steel Mogu is a hyperspeed collage of synthetic, trance-influenced synths contorting around violent, mutating 808s - whilst Clear Tamei channels lavish string quartets and melancholic, fictional classical instruments. The double features are set in Mamu, 3000 years prior to the events of ‘Neō Wax Bloom.’ We are introduced to a young, see-through, god in-training named Tamei. Although a gifted, he and his little cohorts resent their fate of becoming Grid Göds - and find themselves wound up in a hyperspeed, cross-temporal battle with a fleet of mysterious, round beings.